"How exactly did you manage to get stuck in there?"
Hinata yelped at the familiar voice, tired but so happy and content. She looked up and her eyes widened as she took in the sight.
Naruto.
She scanned him with her Byakugan, looking for any injuries, and was rewarded with enough to last a lifetime.
His clothes blackened and torn, like he had been dragged through fire and glass. Hundreds of microscopic scratches dotting his skin. One eye swollen with an ominous purple, like a rotten fruit.
And then her heart almost stopped, just like his heart had almost stopped back then.
Right arm missing. Blood dripping from his shoulder into the empty space where his hand should have been.
But he was beside her in a moment, beaming like he'd been blessed with a hundred years of good fortune, the sun turning his blonde hair so bright that it hurt her eyes to look.
"How did you get stuck, though, Hinata?" he mused, easily breaking off the one knot pinning her foot to the remains of the God Tree. "You Hyuuga can destroy anything with your Gentle Fist, but you got trapped by some wood? You're so silly."
His eyes were still squinted shut in that bright smile, blinking back tears.
And then Hinata found herself blinking back tears of her own.
He was okay.
And she was the one blessed with a hundred years of good fortune.
A/N: For the prompt "How exactly did you manage to get stuck in there?" Part 2 is in the next chapter! :)